{"id":25220,"date":"2023-03-14T10:51:34","date_gmt":"2023-03-14T10:51:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/?p=25220"},"modified":"2025-11-14T13:15:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T13:15:09","slug":"sense-sign-school-toddler-signing-bsl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/blog\/sense-sign-school-toddler-signing-bsl\/","title":{"rendered":"Thanks to Sense Sign School, my toddler can sign more words than she can say"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Alex lives with her partner and their children, Leo, three, and Arabella, 15 months, in south Norfolk. As a family, they\u2019ve all been using Sense Sign School to learn some basic British Sign Language. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Alex<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve always wanted our children to learn sign language. When our first child, Leo, was very little, we started taking him to a baby sign language class. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the classes ended when he was four months old, because of the Covid-19 pandemic. During lockdown, we saw an ad for Sense Sign School, so we decided to try learning at home as a family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We really got into it once our second child, Arabella, was born 15 months ago. Now, we sit down as a family to do Sense Sign School together every night after dinner.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We want our children to be able to communicate with everyone<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There were so many reasons that we thought it would be a good idea to learn sign language with our little ones. The main one is that it allows them to communicate with Deaf and hard of hearing people around them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Arabella is picking it all up so quickly. She can use over 30 signs now. It only takes her a few days to learn them.”<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

My dad has hearing aids, and when he takes them off he is partially deaf. He hasn\u2019t learnt sign language before, but now the kids are doing it, they\u2019re teaching him a little.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I want my children to be able to speak to Deaf people as they grow up. It\u2019s an opportunity for them to make extra friends. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve got a Deaf friend myself, and I always wanted to talk to her in BSL, but I never could. Now that I\u2019m learning with Sense Sign School, I can understand her better. I can have a basic conversation with her in BSL.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It only takes a few days for my toddler to learn new signs<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Arabella signing “eat”.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Arabella is picking it all up so quickly. She can use over 30 signs now. It only takes her a few days to learn them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week, we started learning about signs for food, so she\u2019s been using her favourites all week. At the minute, she signs more than she talks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She uses the signs for \u201capple\u201d and \u201cfruit\u201d every day. She also loves to sign \u201cpizza\u201d every day, but she won\u2019t get pizza every day, of course! She can have an apple every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a family, we really enjoyed the Sense Sign School lesson about the queen\u2019s jubilee. It inspired us to have a little jubilee party, just for the four of us. We really enjoyed learning topical words like \u201ccelebration\u201d and \u201cqueen\u201d!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I try to use signs with Arabella in day-to-day conversation as much as I can. I\u2019m also trying to learn the signs to go along with some of her favourite nursery rhymes, \u201cFive Little Monkeys\u201d and \u201cWe\u2019re Going on a Bear Hunt\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learning signs has brought us closer to our community \u2013 and each other<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The other day, we saw an example of what a difference it makes to know a bit of sign language, when Arabella greeted someone at our church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we arrived at church we were told that there was a new lady who had just joined, and that she\u2019s Deaf. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arabella went straight up to the lady and signed, \u201cHello, how are you?\u201d The lady\u2019s eyes lit up! It was amazing to see this 15-month-old child chat to her, when most of the adults didn\u2019t know how to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leo doesn\u2019t sign as much, but one way signing has helped him is with expressing his feelings when he\u2019s having a tantrum. He can struggle with communicating verbally. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He uses the signs for \u201chappy\u201d or \u201csad\u201d. And he has some BSL books about emotions, which he will pull down off the shelf, to show us how he\u2019s feeling. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ll definitely carry on with the lessons. I\u2019d love it if the kids could grow up to be fluent in sign language. It helps them, and it\u2019s something that can help other people, too. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alex explains how she and her children Leo and Arabella have all been using Sense Sign School to learn some basic British Sign Language.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":25221,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"display_author":[1086],"class_list":["post-25220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","display_author-alex"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25220"},{"taxonomy":"display_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/display_author?post=25220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}